Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Tuesday 03/20 A.M. Quickie:There Are No Cinderellas Here

I spent yesterday affirming that, indeed, there are no Cinderellas in this year's Sweet 16.

7-seed UNLV? Not with that Top 10 RPI. 6-seed Vandy? I have a hard time with a 6-seed who finished second in a high-major conference being thought of as a "Cinderella." How about "name" Cinderellas like Butler or Southern Illinois? It's an offense to the concept of "Cinderella" that we would even CONSIDER that a 4- or 5-seed could be a Cinderella.

It's like a statistical correction from last year's run by George Mason. The Tournament has a way of evening itself out, and this year's result only shows how vital Cinderellas are to the process.

All-Tournament (So Far): Meanwhile, I quickly came to some conclusions about my All-Tournament Team from the First Weekend: Acie Law, Derrick Byars, Tyler Hansbrough, Al Horford, Julian Wright.

NFL: Joey Porter faces battery charge after cutting Bengals OT Levi Jones. Two points here: (1) Yet another embarrassing off-field incident for the NFL; (2) Finally, a Bengals player is on the OTHER side of an arrest.

More NFL Blotter: Police are investigating a rape report from the home of Patrick Kerney, who just signed a free-agent deal with the Seahawks. Kerney has not been named as a suspect. (Well... yet.)

Meanwhile, don't look now, but the Hawks are only 4 games out of the playoffs in the East. Every game they win is putting more distance between the Suns and that Hawks' Lottery pick that PHX owns.

NAIA Tournament: Four OTs later, Concordia (CA) KO'ed top-seeded Robert Morris in the semis. Can you imagine what the reaction would be if a game like that happened in the D1 Final Four?

Women's Tournament: UpsetCity! 13-seed Marist knocks out 5-seed Middle Tennessee to become only the third 13-seed ever to make it to the Women's Sweet 16. (2-seed Stanford was upset, too, by FloridaState.)

NIT: I guess it WAS a good idea to put Syracuse in the NIT. The Orange's Carrier Dome win last night in the quarterfinals was the largest NIT crowd ever.

(More: KansasState was eliminated by DePaul. Their consolation prize is that between the arrival of Durant-like freshman Michael Beasley and the return of Bill Walker from injury, the Wildcats are one day closer to making the NCAA Tournament, not the NIT, next year.)

MLB Notes: David Wells has diabetes. Does that really surprise you?... Ken Griffey moves to RF. That will seem kind of strange actually... Dontrelle Willis (my favorite pitcher -- and perhaps player -- in baseball) will be the Marlins' Opening Day starter. Again: Does that really surprise you?

Varsity Dad: Gilbert Arenas joins the club! ("Daddy Zero?") His new baby boy already has a nickname, and it might not surprise you to learn Gilbert had endorsement deals in mind. Here's the post.

72 comments:

Cinderellas should be sought in the women's tourney. Specifically look toward Marist.

That said, I've become firmly convinced that the lack of cinderellas is directly linked to the NBA's lack of age limits. A number of people who would have gone pro (see: Oden, Greg as an example) instead went to name college teams and those coaches have responded by giving them appropriate roleplayers around them that otherwise would be your stars on Miami Ohio.

It sucks, and yes, it does not bode well for future tournaments, but I'm not willing to go out and say that the NCAA Cinderella is over. Call this year a karmic balancing for Mason's run last year, I suppose.

Ohio State in 1999 was a 4-seed...but cmon..Ohio State?! It was shocking that that team would be any good, let alone for them to reach the FF. But it was a one-time deal.In those terms, I'd be alright with considering Vanderbilt as the Cindy of the tournament.

Rafael it was like the gators in 1994. Sure they were a 3 seed and made it to the final four but I remember being at a party watching the UCONN game(greatest college bball game I have ever seen) and no one gave the gators a chance to win. The press down in tampa was treating the gators as a cinderella mostly because of their lack of a bball tradition. Like I said yesterday I feel the only requirement to be a cinderella is to have no one give you a shot in hell of winning.

God I can't wait for baseball to start. Best part is I will being the season living in orlando so I will be able to check out a few d-rays games before moving to chicago this summer and having a chance to visit all the stadiums in the midwest I have always wanted to go to. Do I start with wrigley or do I take the train up to milwaukee. I think I would rather watch the sausage race over a game at the friendly confines. Of course the house I am trying to buy is in wrigleyville so I figure im going to have to become an adopted cubs fan. I am used to suffering as I am a bucs, lightning, and d-rays fan.

Also, how about the person atop the national Tourney Challenge leaderboard only missing one game so far... and it cost them a Final Four team...(Wash St.)

I agree, there's no Cinderella to root for this year. Butler/So Ill are as close as it gets, but is it hard to get behind a "little guy" that was considered a top 20 team, or a UNLV team that, even as a 7-seed, had a respectable RPI and has a history of a couple of titles.

I'll be rooting for Butler this weekend, but only because I picked them to upset the Gators. Otherwise, I'm just going to enjoy future Celtic Greg Oden.

@ heroin shiek: "I am used to suffering as a bucs, lightning and d-rays fan."

Really? Didn't the Bucs & Lightning win championships in the last five years (one of each, I believe)? I'll give you the D-Rays; they've yet to be competetive.

Sure the bucs and the ning have won titles but I have been a fan for a combined 45 odd separate sport seasons so that is why I say I have put up with suffering. Cmon no team is historically more pathetic than the bucs. When another team pulls off a run of double digit losing seasons like the bucs did then you can complain. I guess it could be worse at least we have titles but does one title make up for all the anguish? I don't think I have agonized over a bucs season like this last one. It completely made me forget that we were champs so recently. As for the lightning they have usually put a good product on the ice. The d-rays are useless.

I think I have to root for the cubs just like dan is with the gators. The fiancee is a diehard cubs fan from the southside go figure.

Willis starts opening day again, is this the most opening day starts by someone so young? How many will he have before it's all over? I'm a Phillies fan, what do you people think, Marlins a lucky fluke, or young team to be scared of?

wait i hadn;t gontten to the kearny thing in that post my bad. Yah he went to my school and is like one of the most famous alums, and he spoke at like 3 straight graduations so our school will be pissed if this isture but they will probably never mention it. i am aware that that is completely irrelevant.

David Wells having diabetes is like saying newborns piss and poop themselves every three hours. It's inevitable the fat bastard but for some unknown reason the dude is comical.

As for Kerney, I know him personally. He's a stand up guy. His brother died in the line of duty in VA. I would be very, very, very surprised if he had anything to do with the deal. Story is his three female friends me three guys on amateur night (St. Pats) and one of those guys is the rapist. Stay tuned. I am interested in the outcome because I would be crushed to learn he had anything to do with this.

Really, Snyder and Corey are the only ones pitching well. Pineiro is getting paid to be the closer, so if no other candidates emerge and we don't make a trade, he'll get the job since Timlin hasn't pitched at all. Snyder right now would be the ultimate Dark Horse, considering he pitched well enough that they're already switching his role to the bullpen (short relief). His stock has probably gained the most, while Timlin and Hansen's chances are pretty much nil at this point.

If I had to make the call I'd right now either go with Pineiro or Snyder. But a trade wouldn't surprise me in the least.

hey todd, if I did the math correctly from before, you would have graduated from BC soon after I did...why is this relevant? I'm just curious if you were at Gionta's 5 goal period game against Maine. That's probably the most impressive thing I've seen live in sports.

And by the way... @heroin shiek: "When another team pulls off a run of double digit losing seasons like the bucs did then you can complain." Duly Noted - I often forget just how bad the Bucs were, historically, after their past seven or eight years of competetiveness. Any team whose coach is "in favor of" their offense's execution... not a good thing.

@andy: Not a "slow day" - we're just all gearing up for a live fantasy baseball draft...

Soccer is a niche sport in the US. That's not a crack at it, but it's just what it is. It's like hockey, in that there just isn't enough of a casual following here to make it mainstream enough at the moment.

Soccer has the potential to explode, but the problem is that the MLS offers an inferior product to what Europe offers, and people like myself, who will watch the World Cup, but that's about it, just can't get into it. Can you even watch most Euro soccer here? Or is it something that you have to get a subscription to?

nice quote big d maybe the greatest quote in all of football. God I miss both McKays. I never even thought about dan's marlins theory but yeah losing made me forget what little glory the bucs have had.

Teams I love to hate:

NFL pre realignment it was the bears but now it is the panthers.MLB Yankees and Red SoxNBA Lakers (and I grew up in LA during the early 80's)Soccer ManYoo which is tough since they are owned by the glazers who own the bucs.NHL FlyersNCAAFL FSU and Notre DameNCAABB Kentucky

Your right verbal there are a lot of americans who do like the beautiful game. Granted I lived in scotland for most of my teens and my first match was the Old Firm in 87 at Ibrox. You go to that derby and you are a fan for life I think.

Re: Euro soccer: If you have DirectTV, I think you can get up to 7/10 English games per weekend with a few Italian, Spanish, French and German as well. I agree that it's just a niche sport here, but it has a larger following than most think. If you don't, you will likely get 4 English games, plus the Italian and Spanish depending on programming available. Anyway, I enjoy it, but I'll keep my comments about it here few and far between.

The biggest problem with soccer in the US is that the quality of play is no better than a second division in most european countries. In addition the games you do get on cable are generally only the most popular teams unless you get the setanta sports package|( that is what it is here in orlando) I had a friend out here who had an old school satellite dish in his yard. He had a package that was about 500 a year that allowed him to get every game from all the major leagues and cup competitions worldwide. We would show up at 4 in the morning on saturday and watch games for 12 hours. If is difficult to follow most teams if they aren't in the top four or five in their respective leagues so your choices are limited unless you want to shell out money only a diehard fan could justify. I seriously doubt it will ever be anything more than something we pay attention to every four years. Now if the US won a world cup all bets are off.

re: SoccerI'll admit that in some areas of the US Soccer is a niche sport. But I bet if you took a poll of people aged 20-30 in the US, more of them played organized soccer growing up than any other sport.

The problem is that MLS has its issues with quality (I went to a game last year and I think my local college plays a more aesthetically pleasing game). And it is hard to get good watch good European soccer here.But you go to a game there (even some second tier leagues) and you'll get excited about the game - the atmosphere is like a major college basketball or football game.

@ Rafael.Teams I hate for international soccer: Italy (floppers), and France.

Nah I am a Motherwell supporter. Even have the amber and claret badge on my elbow. I like hearts also because in a roundabout way they are named after my favorite sir walter scott novel but my family is from the motherwell area. I actually got to see them win the cup in 91. I was only at the old firm match because my friend had tickets and I had never seen a football match. Im not catholic so I can't like a team of fenians and Rangers are the Yankees of the SPL.

At the risk of bringing up a stereotype, but isn't the increasing Latino population a sign that Soccer really could get more mainstream support stateside?

Obviously not all Latinos watch soccer, but it seems like with ESPN Deportes and many of the Spanish speaking television stations, that there is a market there. (What games do they show on Deportes and the other spanish-speaking TV outlets? Are they Euro games or Latin-American games?)

The problem I see though is that there isn't one, unified league that is easy to follow for people in the US. It seems like every country has its own leagues, and there isn't just one standard product that shows off the best of the best worldwide, except for the World Cup. Am I right, or completely off?

Why can't Coors Light make a commercial about the offense execution.... I'm in favor of it.

If Manny Ramirez casually mentioned his grill on ebay during an interview (if it is his), it would sell for $30K. Imagine, having friends over for a barbecue and telling them that this was Manny's grill...

In order:New York Yankees- like I need to list them, still angry about the Jeffrey Mayer/Terry Tarasco incident (Orioles, Red Sox under enemy of my enemy is my friend clause, and formerly of the underdog clause)Duke basketball- see "New York Yankees" (Terps)Dallas Cowboys- "America's Team" label is moronic (Redskins)Indianapolis Colts- Peyton Manning is annoying (Redskins)Notre Dame football- not on the same level as the above teams but just annoying (Terps)New York Knicks- many friends that are the annoying Knick fan plus I grew up hating Patrick Ewing and his ugly face (Bullets)NHL

I'd like to point out that I have some of the most hated teams on the country on my list (see: Duke, Yankees, Cowboys) but all 3 of those are because I'm from DC/MD. Cowboys hate Skins, O's hate Yanks, and Terps hate Dukies.

Does this somehow mean something? The most hated teams being all hated by people from the same geographic location.

You're somewhat right on both accounts. I think it may be wrong to over-generalize the Latino pop. as a whole, but most Mexicans and other central Americans are into soccer more than other sports. I back that up by pointing out that in places like Mexico and Central America, soccer is king of the sports, and other places in Latin America (Venezuela, Cuba, Dom. Rep., Puerto Rico, etc.) baseball is the main sport. That said, I don't think MLS is doing enough to try to bring in the increasing Mexican population (naming the new Houston team something anti-Mexican at the beginning of last year didn't help). For the most part, I think the Mexicans follow the Mexican league through ESPN Deportes (which also shows games from Spain and the Champions' League). The Champions' League is a season long tournament that involves the best teams from all the European leagues. Which is a way of getting around the talent being dispersed throughout the top leagues as you mentioned.

I personally find MLS unwatchable, mostly because of poor announcers and confusing field set-ups (football lines in the middle of the field)...though going to a game or two live is a fun way to kill a couple of hours on a lazy Sat. afternoon in the summer.

Well, if we are going to expand to Looney Toons (and I agree, Speedy Gonzales is way overrated), what else can we hate?

Animals -- CatsBeer -- Fosters (Australian for "man, this sucks")Comedienne -- tie between Rosie and RosanneActor -- Tom Cruise (the new and improved version, not the old TC from Risky Business and All the Right Moves)

These team are the real big spenders in europe. They are the Yankees of their respective leagues. Chelsea are the biggest spenders mostly because they are owned by a really rich russian oil tycoon. The italian teams are loaded but they fix games so they are pretty shady. I like arsenal because I thought the cannon was cool when I was 13 even though they sucked back in the 80's. Regardless if you like any of these teams chances are most people will look at you like you are a duke/yankees/cowboys fan. IF you want a really cool team to support go for barcelona. They have a really cool history that is tied into spanish politics and they have cool uniforms. Oh yeah they also have a bucktoothed magician named Ronaldhino

Houston's original name was 1836 because that's when the city was founded. Unfortunately, that's also when Texas declared independence from Mexico resulting in a war that killed a lot of Mexicans. They've since changed the name to the Dynamo.

Heroin Sheik answered this, but to narrow it down, Chelsea and Real Madrid are most Yankee-like in their exhorbitant spending. Not that I can complain (Yankees fan) without being a hypocritcal d-bag.

Also, I happen to like Foghorn Leghorn. I always hated Tweety and Porky. I agree that the Roadrunner was an arrogant prick though. Couldn't Sylvester and Wil E. Coyote win just once!

I'm with you on McCarver. I would add Joe Buck he is a pompous ass and him and McCarver are just so bad together. In college hoops I cannot stand Billy Packer he does not make the game fun at all and I have thought this even before Simmons wrote his article in the last issue of ESPN's rag.

I like Vitale to an extent, I think he constant slurping of Duke and Coach K is one of the biggest factors in all the Duke hating the last few years. I love Bill Raferty the guy makes the game fun to watch and I wish he would take over for Packer as the color guy for the Final Four. If Al McGuire was still alive he would be up there with Raferty.

@shpiders: I'm not sure that most people aged 20-30 played soccer more than anything. I think baseball/softball would be it. I know that my hometown had a pretty big youth soccer program, but Little League was still much bigger.

As far as Looney Tunes, I hated Pepé Le Pew. He was so annoying with the French accent and crap....

I'll go one further than what Ryan said(West Virgina). Rutger fans annoy me more than ever.Okay congrats,You had one good mediocre season. Have fun while USF takes your spotlight this up and coming season.

I don't think hating the same teams is necessarily geographical. In some cases, certainly, but reading through the lists, almost all of them are organizations with traditions of winning (at least at some point). Nobody hates the D-Rays (MLB), Browns (NFL), Grizzlies (NBA), or the lower-tier hockey teams (NHL). Well if you're from Tampa or Cleveland you might hate the D-Rays or the Browns.

MLB-Red Sox (Yanks)NBA-Celtics (Knicks, started liking them because of all the hate on the web)NHL-Islanders and Devils (Rangers)NCAA FB- Notre Dame and any team in the over exposed Big Ten (Whoever is playing Notre Dame or the Big Ten)NCAA BB- Used to hate Duke but all the Duke hate on the web makes me hate them less (UMASS)NFL-Pats (Whoever is on my fantasy team)

mlb yankees for all the above reasonsncabb duke (maryland fan plus not a douche) ncaaw (not a sport) ncaa football alabama (i just don;t like them for no apparent reason) nba knicks (living in the met area it is dreadful when they are good.) nfl patriots patriots patriots (go colts) soccer don't care

I might go to the D-rays games in orlando if I am still in town. I love that stadium at WWOS but I usually only go to games with my brother or my best friend so if they don't go I doubt I would make it. I don't drive. I just wish they would fix up (s)Tinker Field downtown. I think the Astros had a minor league team there last. The field sucks and it is in crack town but if the city could figure out something to do with that and the citrus bowl orlando might be able to revitalize that part of town but I won't hold my breath. If it doesn't involve disney this town doesn't seem to care.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.